


in the aftermath

by Musta_aurinko



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Angst, M/M, Many Mentions of Death, Set during the timeskip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:06:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25866394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musta_aurinko/pseuds/Musta_aurinko
Summary: The civil war is over and it is time for the Kou Empire to look towards the future. However, Emperor Hakuryuu wants to build something to remember his deceased magi with.
Relationships: Judal | Judar/Ren Hakuryuu
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	in the aftermath

After Hakuryuu had struck his stamp on a paper, his servants hurried off to carry his order forward in the line of command. Of course they would, he was the Emperor. Emperor of the Kou Empire. The legitimate one! No one was around, so Hakuryuu sighed deeply and sunk down on his throne just a bit. No need to keep up a brave face for only the walls to see.

He was fresh off from another ceremony. Maybe Kouen’s execution had only been a fake one, but most people didn’t know that. It had been a huge event; anyone from the locals to international guests from the Seven Seas Alliance were present to witness it, the latter group visibly satisfied. Little did they know…

But now, there was another ceremony he wanted to hold, and this was for the Kou Empire alone. No outsiders were needed – they wouldn’t understand the importance of it at all. Anyone knowledgeable of the country’s matters knew very well how it had managed to expand into the massive empire it had. A part of it had been because of the First Emperor and his oldest sons, but that part was considerably small when compared to everything that happened after the moment the magi had been brought into Kou. No matter what you thought of it, the fact remained that Kou had more than 50% of the land it had thanks to Judar: the metal vessels and dungeon technology that gave Kou an edge over any land they wished to conquer, they would have none of it if it wasn’t for Judar. The expansion had been so rapid the past ten years. So damn it, for that reason alone, he deserved this.

Still, there was also a more personal reason for Hakuryuu’s reign specifically. It was also painfully clear to him that he would not, in fact, be sitting on that throne if it wasn’t for Judar’s help. His whole life, he had underestimated Gyokuen drastically, and had he gone into that battle on his own, he would be six feet under himself right about now. Would someone else’s help have made any difference either? In that moment, what saved them was Judar’s Isolation Barrier. Hakuryuu was fairly certain that there had been no-one else in this world who had mastered that skill at that time.

So Hakuryuu as a leader with dignity really needed to do this. Although he had had his doubts of Judar initially, planning only to use him, Judar had more than proven his worth. He had believed in Hakuryuu with enthusiasm unmatched by anyone, gone with Hakuryuu’s cause regardless of what he himself had thought of it, put Hakuryuu as the priority over anyone or even himself… And he had quite literally died for Hakuryuu’s place on that throne.

Hakuryuu stood up in one, quick move, before he started making slow steps out of the room as if that would have somehow let him escape the uncomfortable reality of the situation. On one hand, Hakuryuu didn’t want to think about it. On the other… he wanted some closure.

Only a week or so later, he found himself observing as workers were moving around markers and digging the base for a construction work. The day was cloudy and chilly, and Hakuryuu crossed his arms to rub in a bit of warmth for himself. He hadn’t put on his layers and layers of Emperor’s robes – why would he have had; this valley was away from the city center and not a very clean place during the construction anyways. But now he kind of wished he had. Those heavy garments would’ve been hellish torture during summer heat but on a day like this…

Hakuryuu’s inner grumbling was interrupted when he heard someone call for him from behind.

“Hakuryuu?” Aladdin asked, approaching with some wariness. It seemed a bit funny to Hakuryuu. This brat had shown up to twist a knife in his wounds when he was at his most vulnerable earlier, fully aware of it, but now Aladdin seemed to try and show him some courtesy. Guess the moment for Hakuryuu’s mental whipping was over. Deserved as it might have been.

Hakuryuu turned around to look at him. Was Hakuryuu’s expression the same mix of bitterness and sad exhaustion he saw every time he looked in the mirror? Probably. In Sindria, Hakuryuu had seen the magi Aladdin as someone great and honourable, almost like a supernatural being. Chosen by a mysterious god to fulfil a noble purpose. Hakuryuu had been polite, and the boy who responded to him nice and in many ways a bit clueless. There had been innocence in those interactions.

Needless to say, those impressions were long gone. Aladdin had turned out to be noble, yes – to the point he acted like he had this deep knowledge no-one else could begin to understand, like he was not a member of this world but an observing outsider. Which was a bit ironic to Hakuryuu considering the lengths Aladdin had gone to protect this world. And on the other hand, Hakuryuu turned out to be, well. Someone that ideological clashes between the two were unavoidable and a-plenty.

Aladdin looked around while walking closer to Hakuryuu.

“What exactly is this place?”

Ah. Yes, for someone outside of Kou, it might need a bit explaining.

“A bit over there, closer to the hills”, Hakuryuu pointed further away from where they were standing, “is the Imperial burial ground.” Aladdin turned to look at that direction. Stone pathways and structures could also be seen.

“Are those the tombs?” Aladdin asked, and Hakuryuu nodded.

“Yes. Well, the hills are tombs as well. From centuries ago. The smaller stone monuments are closer to this dynasty”, Hakuryuu explained, and for a moment he was a child back at his studying table, listening to his instructors and trying to memorize everything.

Aladdin had a weird expression. “Isn’t that a bit over-the-top? An entire hill…”

Hakuryuu snorted. “If you ever visit Heliohapt, you will see this is a universal habit for kings.”

Aladdin laughed a bit. “I suppose so.”

Then, neither said anything and silence took over. Hakuryuu turned back to the preparations for the construction work.

“I don’t think this is your own tomb you’re constructing, so far away from the others”, Aladdin concluded.

“No, it’s not. But this side of the valley has other tombs, not Emperors and Empresses but still important figures.”

And it was true that here, surrounded by lion-like statues (well, that is what they looked like to Aladdin at least), there were other monuments, lined up but with a good distance to each other.

“Without a body, it is really the most I can do”, all emotion had slid off from Hakuryuu’s voice.

“Hakuryuu, I am—” Aladdin began, but it was not the first time Hakuryuu had heard this.

“I know. It’s fine.” And it was fine. Neither Judar nor Alibaba were here. Between the Emperor and this magi from Alma Torran, things were even.

Hakuryuu lay on his bed in his night robes. He was fairly certain he had been asleep just now, but the light in the room seemed unnatural. Then suddenly, like it was the most normal thing, Judar came in through the open window with feather-light steps, a familiar grin on his face.

“Judar?” Hakuryuu asked surprised, sitting up on the bed in an instant.

“Hi”, Judar said casually and turned to pull down the curtain to cover the window. It didn’t make the room all dark, but it dimmed some of the weird hue that was making Hakuryuu’s head spin. Then Judar started walking towards the bed.

“How are you here?” Hakuryuu asked, utterly confused, while Judar jumped on the other side of the bed, lying next to the sitting Hakuryuu.

“You wanted to see me, right? You thought that you wanted to see me. So here I am.”

Hakuryuu looked at the magi.

“If you wanted to see me, I would always come to you. You know that, don’t you? My king…” Judar whispered, and Hakuryuu turned to look away, facing forward instead. He didn’t say anything. After a moment, judging by the sounds, Judar was adjusting himself to get a better position before letting out a relaxed sigh.

“I can’t understand why you would ever think coming in through my window in the middle of the night and plopping down on my bed was an appropriate course of action to take whether you thought I wanted to see you or not”, Hakuryuu said slowly, but before letting out a single word of that sentence he knew it was a completely meaningless thing to bring up considering the situation.

“Do you really have to be like that right now?” Judar asked amusedly. “Because in this moment, I’m sure you understand I know everything that you think.”

Hakuryuu hugged his knees, still not looking back towards the magi.

“Let go of that rigid decorum already. What does it help you if you keep denying it to yourself? It’s not like you have to tell about it to someone else. Or is the idea of it just that repulsive to you? If me and you were…” Judar’s voice had quieted back down to a whisper. Hakuryuu sighed.

“Well, you are right”, he admitted while finally turning to Judar. “Since I can’t ever tell about it to you either, can I?”

Judar gave Hakuryuu an apologetic smile. Hakuryuu finally fell back down on the bed, now the two of them lying side by side, facing each other.

“What would you think if I could ever reveal it you? Would you feel the same? Would you pity me for not being able to reciprocate my feelings? Would you feel grossed out and keep your distance from then on?” Hakuryuu wondered out loud. It was impossible to know. Without asking from Judar, based on his behaviour alone, he couldn’t be certain. He could never be certain.

“Does it bother you not knowing?” Judar asked.

“Maybe there are good sides to ignorance as well. But I can’t stop wondering about it”, Hakuryuu said.

He looked Judar straight in the eye, and the other was looking at him the same. Even in the dimmer light, Hakuryuu could see him so clearly. The bright red eyes that only became more striking by his dark make-up. The pitch-black hair framing his face. His expressions that even in this moment felt too mysterious to be able to tell what he was thinking. And although his face had hard features, his skin looked so touchable. It looked touchable in his face, it looked touchable in his arms, it looked touchable in his waist…

“Why are you so far away?” Judar interrupted his thoughts by asking, and Hakuryuu let out the breath he had been holding. He reached out one arm towards Judar, and painfully slowly, finally, touched him. Hakuryuu had kind of expected for his arm to simply go through Judar. And that the other would disperse into the air in that moment. But that wasn’t the case. Hakuryuu could clearly feel it, Judar was still there, and he let Hakuryuu touch him as much as he wanted.

Hakuryuu nudged closer while slowly moving his hand up Judar’s arm, down to his hips, and up again. He leaned over the magi and brought his hand to the other’s cheek. Staring down at this manifestation of his unusual desire.

“No man has ever made me feel like this, so why did you?” Hakuryuu’s voice was a quiet whisper. “You have made me so confused about myself…”

The Judar below him had a blush on his cheeks, and to Hakuryuu, he looked incredibly cute. It might have been the kind of Judar that had never existed in the real world. Still, Hakuryuu put his forehead against Judar’s.

“Can I?” he asked, and Judar made a small nod.

So Hakuryuu pushed him further down on the mattress and kissed slowly and deeply. It was the longest, most passionate kiss he had been able to have with his relatively small amount of experience, but he was going to take every second of it. Even though he knew that none of it was real. Even though the Judar who accepted him like this wasn’t real, because he knew that Judar was _dead_ … But Hakuryuu needed this moment desperately like a thirsty man needed water.

Then, all of a sudden, Hakuryuu was awake. The morning sun was bright and had lightened up the whole room. It must have still been earlier than when he usually got up, but there was no way Hakuryuu could go back to sleep. He only lay there staring at the ceiling and took a deep breath. He wiped the tears that had built up in his eyes.

There was no funeral. In the traditional sense, it wouldn’t have been possible anyways as there was no body. No body to show in an open casket or carry to the tomb and actually there was no point in having a room in the tomb for a non-existent body either. But there were still rooms, of course. Maybe this wasn’t on the Imperial burial grounds, but it was impressive enough for a prince. The hallways were decorated with colours and paintings and patterns, the place filled with riches. Sure, these modern stone tombs were smaller in comparison to the hills, but one mustn’t get the impression that they were _small_ by any means. They were still massive, as tall as trees!

Burning incense was obvious to happen but Hakuryuu wondered if burning paper money personally is something he would need to do. With the knowledge that someone with black rukh is doomed from any form of afterlife anyways… Well, he didn’t really want to think about that. But would Judar even care? He’d either say it’s dumb or be annoyed at not getting the maximum respect. But in the end, he would probably be fine with whatever Hakuryuu chose.

That was kind of the problem. Hakuryuu desperately wanted to do something Judar would like. It’s only that he wasn’t exactly sure what that would be. So he had gone with the “max respect like to a war hero” approach here. From a public perspective anyways.

Maybe there was a certain level of irony in that Hakuryuu had made the Kou Empire a Seven Seas Alliance country, yet he built such a thing for Judar’s memory of all people. Still, nobody mentioned it. Nobody mentioned Judar at all. Apart from Aladdin and Sinbad’s acknowledgement of his death, no one had spoken about him. Maybe they didn’t want Hakuryuu to hear. Maybe they had nothing to say.

Locals and foreigners alike looked at the construct with awe in their eyes. For most of them, it was the tomb of “some magician”. These kinds of projects one would think to be secondary considering the spiralling state of the country at the moment, in terms of money and security. But for one of the most influential people in the empire’s history, surely it was excusable. For Hakuryuu personally, it was an attempt at absolution.

But this wasn’t supposed to be about Hakuryuu, was it? It was supposed to be about Judar. The Judar who had been the only person to believe in him always, as long as they had known. The Judar who had joined arms with him to defeat the witch who had hurt them both, and the Judar who had lunged into war with him simply for the fact that he loved battle. How much of it was because of Hakuryuu as a person, and how much because Hakuryuu just happened to be in a position advantageous to Judar’s goals? As more time passed, Hakuryuu became more unsure. If he had known what was to be his fate, would he have chosen differently? Would he hate Hakuryuu for what had happened? What other choice did Hakuryuu have but to push forward and reach the goals they had been aiming for together? He hoped Judar would’ve appreciated that. Deep in thought, Hakuryuu rested his face in his hand.

“Your Majesty!” a female voice suddenly called out, and Hakuryuu lifted his head to look. Kougyoku was hurrying towards him.

“What is it?” Hakuryuu asked, and suddenly Kougyoku seemed really embarrassed.

“Oh, uh… Sorry to bother you. I thought you were…” she mimicked the motion of a tear falling. Hakuryuu shrugged.

“What brings you here?”

“Well, it’s because this is… Judar’s…” Kougyoku explained, motioning at the huge tomb next to them. Hakuryuu nodded. Of course, Judar and Kougyoku had spent much time together over the years. It would be natural to see her stop by here at least once.

Kougyoku crouched down to the ground to look at the massive thing. “I find it so difficult to believe. It was only after seeing this that the finality of it really hit me. Like it is _now_ that he is gone for real and for good.”

Hakuryuu hadn’t really thought of it from that angle. Maybe because he had been there to see it. The only sound that he made was a “hmm”.

“It’s not the worst way to go, still. He was doing what he loved. In a war, in a magic battle against another powerful magician. After you had finally gone to a dungeon with him. I’m sure he didn’t _want_ to go but… it’s really not the worst. I’m sure it was a time in his life when he was happy…” Kougyoku said, voice becoming more emotional by the end of it. Hakuryuu clenched his fists.

“Would us going to a dungeon really matter much?”

“Of course. He always talked about how much he wanted to. Then complained that you wouldn’t agree”, Kougyoku explained.

“But why?”

“Don’t ask me.” She smiled at him, but there was exhaustion in her voice. Hakuryuu figured she didn’t have any more of a clue than he did.

“Still, it’s nice that you would build such a thing for him”, she continued.

“It’s just…” Hakuryuu began explaining. “He would… I wanted to… For what he did for the Empire. He really deserves that recognition.” Hakuryuu had almost revealed something personal, but quickly pulled himself back to formality.

“Now, I think he would be really happy to hear that”, Kougyoku’s smile had become wider.

“What do you mean?”

“For you to have changed your opinion on him for the positive. If he could hear, I am sure it would make him happy.”

Busted. Kougyoku had seen through him.

Returning to his room later, Hakuryuu kicked his shoes off and fell on the bed stomach down. He looked through the window, where the evening clouds slowly floated by.

If only Judar would step through that window like in his dream earlier. He would come in and Hakuryuu wouldn’t hesitate to express how much he had missed the other. Maybe he would even tell him… how he felt… And like in the dream, Judar would accept him with open arms.

Well, a man could dream, right? That’s all he had left. Daydreams, confusion of his own feelings, and never being able to know how the target of those feelings would’ve seen him.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello. I hope you enjoyed the fic.
> 
> To talk about Judar's tomb. It's a shame we don't see it, but it was said to be massive. As far as I know, such tombs were made of stone. They also had beautiful paintings on the walls inside. I wonder what kinds of paintings Hakuryuu wanted them to paint for Judar.
> 
> The hills are meant to refer to Chinese-style pyramids that were covered by plant-life over centuries. Burning paper money is a reference to a practice where "joss paper" is burned to ensure the spirit of the dead person will have good things in the afterlife.
> 
> I've been wanting to write with the regular pace I have for months now, but in all honesty I have not been feeling mentally well lately. Maybe that is why a sadder story was easier to write. Even still, thank you for reading. I hope you liked reading it as much as I liked writing. ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ


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